War Of The Stone
by zsofikam
Summary: The gang, now adults, have their greatest adventure yet. Full summary inside
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note:

Hi, it's me. Now that I've introduced myself, let me give you a basic spoiler-free synopsis of what

you are about to read. Basically, the gang are all grown up and find their significant others from

within a group of migrants. Littlefoot and Spike have their friendships with Ali and Tippy

respectively blossom into romance, while Cera, Ducky, and Petrie fall for newcomers Trike,

Bracken, and Sky respectively. Everything's normal for the most part until one night when Petrie

sees a mysterious blue glowing comet, only to find that no one believes him the next morning.

However, Ozzie, Strut, Dill, Icky, Sierra, and Rinkus have all been united under a new presence

that is also searching for the stone.

Glossary:

Belly dragger-Crocodile

Bigmouth-Hadrosaur

Bright circle-Sun

Clubtail-Ankylosaur

Earthshake-Earthquake

Far-walkers-Immigrants

Flyer-Pterodactyl

Flying rock-Meteor

Flying sharptooth-Harpactognathus

Green food-Plants

Hard water-Ice

Longneck-Sauropod

Sand creeper-Crab

Sharptooth-Any form of terrestrial non-crocodilian predator,

T-rex, Allosaurus, Megalosaurus, Spinosaurus, etc

Sky colours-Rainbow

Sky fire-Lightning

Sky water-Rain

Smoking mountain-Volcano

Spiketail-Stegosaurus

Swimmer-Plesiosaur, can also mean hadrosaur

Swirling wind-Tornado

Threehorn-Triceratops

Swimming sharptooth-Mosasaur or Liopleurodon, can also mean shark

Tree stars-Leaves

I.

Nestled between a circle of mountains, within a place of refuge, there was a herd like none other.

An Apatosaurus, a Stegosaurs, a Triceratops, a Pteranodon, and a Parasaurolophus all living

together. Littlefoot, Cera, Petrie, Ducky, and Spike had known each other for nearly their entire lives and had made the journey to the Great Valley together. Now they were all grown up and Spike was able to talk. At the moment the friends were just saying goodbye to each other before going home for the night. After they all said their goodnights, they all went home. Even though they were now adults, they still lived with their parents, which for Ducky and Spike meant their mother, for Cera meant her father and stepmother, for Littlefoot meant his grandparents, and for Petrie meant his uncle Pterano. As Littlefoot lay on his side and tried to tried to dig a hole by rubbing against the ground, he felt a shadow above him and heard a voice say "going to bed already?" Littlefoot looked up at the pink sky, not realizing that it was still evening, and saw his grandpa standing over him and his grandma browsing a short ways away. "I didn't realize it was so early", said Littlefoot, "I was just tired I guess", "that's quite alright", reassured Grandma, "we just though you ought to know that we're going to be having some guests". Ducky and Spike were just about to huddle up next to each other, their mother approached them and said "we're going to have some visitors soon, although I don't know exactly when". Cera huddled against her little stepsister Tricia when she was approached by her father and her stepmother Tria. Cera heard Tria ask "do you think we should tell the girls, Topsy?" Cera used to dislike Tria calling her father Topsy, but she had grown used to it. Both Cera and Tricia were nearly asleep, but were both alerted by this. Cera and Tricia suddenly became wide awake and asked "what?" "it turns out", said Topps, "that we'll soon be having some visitors", "more then some actually" continued Tria. Petrie was starting to doze off when he felt Pterano touch him and whisper "wake up, I have exciting news". Petrie immediately sat up and asked "what is it?" Petrie and Pterano were now almost completely indistinguishable from each other. "From what I hear" answered Pterano, "we're having some migrants arriving tomorrow. The next morning, Spike was the first to wake up. He decided to go and get some water when he saw a rock wall with writing on it. It appeared to be a list of names. There were several that he didn't recognize but there were also some that he did. He read down the list and decided to bring his friends over. Once Spike had brought everyone over, he explained "it looks as if the names of everyone coming over have been written down on this rock. There are a few familiar names here". The group noted a few familiar names on the rock. In addition to several strangers, there was Ali, a she-longneck that had once shown them to a special flower that would cure Grandpa Longneck when he was sick. Although Littlefoot had thought of her as nothing more than a friend at the time, he had begun to develop deeper feelings for her. The same held true for Spike with regards to Tippy, who last time she visited was only regarded as a friend, and now Spike was also able to express his feelings for her. There was also Littlefoot's father Bron, who was usually off on errands, Doc, who the group once met when Grandpa Longneck told them a story about the Lone Dinosaur, and Chomper. All of a sudden, Tricia came running and said "guys, you have to see this!" Everyone looked up and noticed a large crowd, out of which two individual came running toward them. They were immediately recognizable as Ali and Tippy. They seven of them chatted about old times for a while before Ali said "we'd like you to meet some new friends". Tippy nodded and called "Trike, Bracken, Sky, over here!" Toward them came mirror

images of Cera, Ducky, and Petrie, introduced by Ali and Tippy as Trike, Bracken, and Sky.

Trike was the first to step forward and explained "Sky, Bracken, and I met up with this group

around the same time as Ali and Tippy. Threehorn Meadow is stuck in the middle of a drought".

"I came for my brother", said Bracken, "He's always wanted to see this place and at first I was

kind of reluctant but I ended up enjoying our travels". Sky added in "I don't remember

having any parents at all. I was adopted by someone whom I haven't seen in a long time and

who I've heard was residing in the valley". While Littlefoot and Ali and Spike and Tippy

resembled old friends, Cera, Ducky, and Petrie, couldn't stop silently gazing at Trike, Bracken,

and Sky. The silence was interrupted by Bracken saying "what should we do now?" Ducky was

about to speak when a smaller version of Bracken sprinted toward them. "That's my brother."

The smaller version of Bracken, who appeared to be around the same age as Tricia, held out a

hand and said "the name's Meeko. What's yours?" Ducky, who was already completely in

awe of Bracken, said "my name is Ducky. That's Cera and her sister Tricia, Petrie, Bigfoot,

and my brother Spike". Tricia, who was Meeko's age, asked "want to do something? Want to  
go to the jumping water? Or look at my mom's rock collection? Or maybe visit Chomper?"

"Who's Chomper?" asked Sky, "our friend" replied Cera. Suddenly, a voice behind them asked

"did someone say my name?" "Sharptooth!" cried Trike, Bracken, Meeko, and Sky. "It's ok",

said Chomper, "I want to be friends with you guys." "He's a good sharptooth. Yep yep yep."

Chomper laughed and said "at least I don't like green food so I won't contribute to a food

shortage", "don't worry about it" reassured Cera, "my dad hasn't even thought of a lack of food

and if there's anyone who would worry about that it's him." Spike asked "remember the last time

Tippy came to the Great Valley and we weren't allowed to play because of the competition over

food?" "Would you guys like to meet some of the other farwalkers?" asked Trike, "and

farswimmers?" said Bracken, "and farflyers?" said Sky. "Then we'd like to meet all your

families", said Ali, "Tippy and I already have but Trike, Sky, and Bracken haven't."

Author's Note:

That's the 1st chapter. I'm sorry that it's so short. I have a bad habit of rushing through the

beginning of my stories in order to get to the action, but I'm working to improve my writing

in that area. Also, I'm sure some of you may be wondering what happened to Petrie's mom.

She will appear later, as will Bron, Doc, Tippy's parents, Ruby, Mr Thicknose, the bullies

(who aren't bullies anymore), Mo, Guido, and a vision of Littlefoot's mom, just to name a few.

The 2 characters that will not be coming back are the tinysauruses and the yellow bellies

because Wisdom Of Friends (dumb title) and Invasion Of The Tinysauruses (dumber title)

are the only LBTs that I didn't like and I only saw each of them once. However, I will also

introduce some new characters (in addition to the ones I've already introduced) and some new

species like Ceratosaurus, Protoceratops, Dilophosaurus, and Harpactognathus (imagine a

Pteranodon with sharp teeth). Also, who is this mysterious stranger who adopted Sky?


	2. Chapter 2

Crowned sharptooth=Dilophosaurus

Ali, Tippy, Trike, Bracken, and Sky all led Littlefoot, Cera, Petrie, Ducky, Spike, and

Chomper over to meet the newcomers. Among the newcomers whom the group met were

Ali and Tippy's parents, Trike's mother, and Bracken's father. Meeko and Tricia played

together while all this was going on. After Ali, Tippy, Trike, and Bracken had introduced

their parents, Cera, Littlefoot, Petrie, Ducky, and Spike would introduce theirs. First,

Littlefoot led the others to Bron and his grandparents. The friends found Bron and Grandma

and Grandpa Longneck near the river with their heads in the water probing for water plants.

They pulled their heads out of the water when the saw the reflections above and Ducky and

Spike's mother also approached from another part of the shore. Ali and Tippy introduced

themselves, as did Bracken, Sky, and Trike. Grandma and Grandpa recognized Ali and Tippy,

but this was the first time they had met the grey threehorn, purple flyer, and light blue bigmouth.

Mama Swimmer was also introduced to the group and remembered her previous meetings with

Ali and Tippy. Tricia and Meeko came running into the water and started splashing each other.

When asked by the adults, Tricia said "this is Bracken's brother Meeko." Tricia then stood up

and told Meeko "you've met my stepsister! Just wait till you meet my parents!" The pair of them

ran over to where Topps and Tria were grazing. Tria looked up to see Tricia and a bigmouth

she didn't recognize and then saw Cera and her friends getting out of the water and approaching

her and Topps. Along with Cera and the others were a group of strangers, each of whom looked

similar to Cera or one of her friends. Meeko however, immediately started talking: "are you

Tricia and Cera's parents? I'm Meeko and my brother Bracken's over there." Tricia smiled

and said "I'm Tria and this is Topsy. We're Tricia's parents but we're Cera's father and

stepmother." "What have I told you about calling Dad Topsy?" Cera suddenly butted in.

Cera then looked at Topps, who had finally looked up from his green food, and introduced

Tippy, Trike, Ali, Sky, Bracken, and Meeko. Topps sighed and asked "Cera, you're just friends

with Trike, right?" "of course Daddy" Cera replied. To Cera it seemed as if Topps was

continuing trying to enforce his rules for dating, even though there were no threehorns for miles.

Topps then glanced and Tria, chuckled, and whispered "at least now I won't have to anticipate

any grandchildren being longneck/threehorn hybrids." "At least now I won't have to anticipate

any grandnieces or nephews being swimmer/flyer hybrids" said a voice from above. It was

Pterano, who was in a tree. Sky's eyes suddenly widened and she flew up to the branch Pterano

was one, followed by Petrie. Sky faced a confused-looking Petrie and said "remember how I told

you about me not having parents? Pterano found me and saved me from crowned sharpteeth."


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note:

This is where things finally start amping up. We now get introduced to Ozzie and Strut, Icky and Dill, and Rinkus and Sierra, all of whom are wanting revenge. Don't worry, the real plot is warming up. Guido also makes an appearance in this chapter, with some startling news. We also get a little back story on Littlefoot's mother. One more thing, I recently learned in the last few months that Tippy is apparently a boy. Tippy's female in this story because that's what I've always thought. I also thought that Guido was an Archaeopteryx but after spending some time on the wiki I learned that he's a Microraptor, specifically the Microraptor gui (hence the name) subspecies. I decided to look up Microraptors and they're totally badass. In this story, Littlefoot's mother is named Maia, literally meaning "good mother". I think it fits her.

In the Mysterious Beyond, a Struthiomimus was peering over a rock wall, possibly keeping an eye out for sharpteeth, while standing on his brother's shoulders. The one on bottom suddenly stumbled and the pair of eggnappers fell on top of each other. The one that had been on top demanded "why does this always happen, Strut?! Can't you keep your balance for more than a few minutes?" "Seriously Ozzie", complained the other, "why do you always have to be on top?" "Because I'm better, that's why!" shouted Ozzie. Once Ozzie and Strut had stopped bickering and looked up, they noticed two flyers, one tan and one pink, on the wall above them. "Who are you?" asked Strut. The tan flyer answered "Rinkus and Sierra", gesturing to his partner and then to himself. In the Land of Mist, even amongst of world of cooperating dinosaurs, the partnership of crocodile and bird was not to be underestimated. Dill and Icky had found each other and were not among those who give up easily. Ozzie, Strut, Icky, Dill, Sierra, and Rinkus all had similar ideas. Meanwhile, the Great Valley was starting to experience a problem of its own, one that wasn't noticeable to anyone just yet but that Guido had noticed. He had just woken up and no sooner had he walked a few paces from his tree then he noticed the clubtail nest that he had passed so many times had been annihilated! The eggs had been crushed and ripped open. Bloodied embryos were scattered amongst the torn shells. "What could have done this?" thought Guido. Most sharpteeth weren't especially interested in eggs, preferring prey that had at least been born, and egg stealers would have taken great care to not damage their potential meals. The only other exclamation that he could think of was someone accidently stepping on the nest. That would explain the crushing, but not the horrible mutilation. Guido did not want to imagine who or what could have done something like this, he just knew that he had to tell his friends. Guido found his friends, along with some he didn't recognize in the Sheltering Grass. Guido introduced himself to Tippy, Ali, Sky, Bracken, and Trike and they introduced themselves. Guido then explained what he had seen and everyone was rightly shocked. Guido added "go tell your folks! I'll go tell Chomper and Ruby!" When Ali and Tippy's parents, Ducky's mother, Trike's mother, Grandma and Grandpa Longneck, Topps, Tria, Bracken's father, Bron, Pterano, Mr Clubtail, Mr Thicknose, and Mrs Maia had been told about the finding, some of the group looked confused. But Topps, Mama Swimmer, Bron, and Pterano looked at each other and shuddered. Grandma and Grandpa, suddenly realizing what this meant, got concerned looks, and Pterano whispered "the Night Hunter." "Who?" asked Petrie, who had dealt with multiple dangers before but got a strange feeling even from the name. Bron stepped forward and explained "when Mama Swimmer, Topps, Pterano, my wife, and myself were younger, we learned about the Night Hunter and tried tracking it down. We were unable to find the Night Hunter, it disappeared later on. But the one thing that was instantly recognizable about the Night Hunter was that it killed not for food, but for the fun of it!" Grandpa Longneck joined in by saying "Maia, that's your mother Littlefoot, was especially intent on finding the Night Hunter. I myself thought it was a legend, but then again I thought the same thing about the Lone Dinosaur but then he came to the valley." Petrie had heard the stories but had never put much thought into them. Nobody was sure what the Night Hunter was. It was just some sort of bogey that dwelled in bad dreams and the dark corners of imagination.


	4. Chapter 4

The friends along with Tricia and Meeko were all sitting by the river bank under the shining sun. Chomper, Ruby, and Guido had joined them and after Chomper and Ruby had met Ali, Trike, Sky, Bracken, Meeko, and Tippy, the group of fifteen discussed the days events. "If whatever messed up the nest was the Night Hunter", said Petrie, "how did they do it? How did they get in the Great Valley? The Great Wall blocks out all sharpteeth except Chomper." "I wonder that too", said Cera, "I remember the time we went after the egg stealers and accidently caused a rockslide that made a hole in the wall. I don't know of any hole in the wall this time. But in that case, how could they have gotten into the Great Valley in the first place?" "It could be a flyer", suggested Sky, "there's no other way to explain how they could have gotten in without any damage to the Great Wall", "I wonder if we could teaching the sharpteeth some manners", asked Spike, "Chomper could be our translator." "That wouldn't work. I've tried it before" answered Chomper. "Maybe something has happened to the Great Wall", suggested Tricia, "and we should check on it." "That's a great idea!" said Littlefoot, "Spike, Tippy, Ali, Cera, Trike, Chomper, and I will walk around the rim. Petrie, Guido, and Sky will check on the wall from above. The watering hole extends to one part of the Great Wall; Ducky, Bracken, and Meeko will see if there are any underwater holes, because I'm sure we all know about swimming sharpteeth. Ruby will stay and watch Tricia." After everyone else left to do their wall inspection,Tricia was left with Ruby, who said "Come on, let's go pick some sweet bubbles!" The pair walked over to a sweet bubble bush and began picking and eating. Soon everyone else returned confused because there didn't seem to be any damage to the Great Wall. They decided to put it out of their minds and have a picnic with the sweet bubbles with minnows for Chomper, Petrie, and Sky. Petrie had for a long time eaten what Littlefoot, Cera, Spike, and Ducky had until Pterano had begun teaching him how to eat properly. Petrie had always been in awe of Pterano's pointed beak and daggerlike claws on both his feet and wings and since he had matured the pair of them would look like twins to strangers. The older Petrie got the more he realized that this wasn't the body of a leafeater. Over minnows, Petrie began telling Sky about all of his previous adventures. He told her of when he originally journeyed to the Great Valley, Chomper's hatching, the drought, when he journeyed to the Land of Mists with Ali to find the Night Flower, being reunited with Chomper on the island, Doc and the string of bad luck, and looking for the Stone of Cold Fire. He told her about the freeze-over and arrival of Tippy's herd, taking Mo to the Big Water, Littlefoot meeting his father, how he met Guido, and discovering the Cave of Many Voices. He talked about the journey to the Meadow of Jumping Water, hiding Chomper when Doc returned, meeting Ruby, Chomper losing a tooth, and the search for the Hidden Runner. He told the story of how he and his friends had returned a nest of sharptooth eggs to the Mysterious Beyond, Ducky and Chomper being trapped on a ledge near a sharptooth, Spike falling into a hole and befriending a group of creatures who called him "the big wise one", finding a shiny stone for Cera's stepmother, Ducky teaching Tricia to swim, how he and Guido had been blown off to Black Rock and how they found their way back, and how Chomper had tried and failed to befriend the sharpteeth of the Mysterious Beyond. This continued until dusk, when everyone decided to go home. Tippy and Ali went to their parents, Ducky, Spike, and Trike went to their mothers, Bracken and Meeko went off to their father, Cera and Tricia left for Topps and Tria, and Littlefoot went to be with Bron and his grandparents. This left Petrie and Sky, both of whom were staying with Pterano. Tonight, Guido decided to spend the night with Petrie, as he sometimes did. That night, Petrie slept until he accidently rolled over onto a pinecone. As he was stratching the pieces off his back, he suddenly noticed a strange blue light from above. He had seen a fair share of flying rocks during his lifetime, but this was somehow different. For one thing, it was flying fairly low, lower than the average flying rock. In addition, it had the intense glow of a blue version of the bright circle and crackled like a forest fire. After the mysterious fireball vanished over the horizon, Petrie shook Pterano awake and cried "Uncle Pterano, did you see it? Wasn't that amazing?" "Wasn't what amazing, Petrie?" yawned Pterano. Petrie, unable to contain himself, continued "the way that thing flew across the sky, and that light, and that noise!" Pterano just put one wing over his eyes and curled up, letting Petrie know he hadn't seen anything.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note:

Here I am. I decided to make a list of returning characters, OCs so far (there will be more), and species that will be making their debut. If I messed up on an existing character's species, forgive me. Most of the character's species I already knew, but a few were guesses.

Returning Characters:

Littlefoot-Apatosaurus

Cera-Triceratops

Ducky-Parasaurolophus

Petrie-Pteranodon

Spike-Stegosaurus

Grandma and Grandpa Longneck-Apatosaurus

Topps-Triceratops

Tria-Triceratops

Tricia-Triceratops

Mama Swimmer-Parasaurolophus

Mama Flyer-Pteranodon

Chomper-Tyrannosaurus Rex

Ruby-Oviraptor

Guido-Microraptor

Tippy-Stegosaurus

Bron-Apatosaurus

Pterano-Pteranodon

Doc-Diplodocus

Kosh-Ankylosaurus

Hyp, Mutt, Nod-Hypsilophodon, Muttaburrasaurus, Nodosaurus

Shorty-Brachiosaurus

Rooter-Ankylosaurus

Scuttle-Crab

Mo-Opthalmosaurus

Swooper-Pteranodon

Mr Thicknose-Pachyrhinosaurus

Pat-Apatosaurus

Sue-Diplodocus(?)

Milo, Lydia, Plower-Ceratogaulus

Elsie-Elasmosaurus

Dara-Diplodocus

Archie-Archelon

Tickles-Megazostrodon(?)

Dinah, Dana-Triceratops

Rainbow Faces-Troodon

Liopleurodon-Liopleurodon(duh)

Ozzie, Strut-Struthiomimus

Icky, Dill-Ichthyornis, Deinosuchus

Sierra, Rinkus-Cearadactylus, Rhamphorynchus

New Characters (so far):

Trike-Triceratops

Bracken-Parasaurolophus

Sky-Pteranodon

Meeko-Parasaurolophus

Species Debuts:

Ceratosaurus

Protoceratops

Dilophosaurus

Harpactognathus

Dryosaurus

Coelophysis

Plateosaurus

Seismosaurus

Placerias

Postosuchus

Archaeopteryx

Herrerasaurus

Eoraptor

The next morning, Petrie woke up at dawn and shook Guido awake. Petrie told Guido and Sky about the strange flying rock and Guido agreed to help wake up the others. The trio woke up Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Spike, Ali, Trike, Bracken, Meeko, Tippy, Ruby, and Chomper and told them. "You know what this reminds me of", said Littlefoot, "the time I saw a flying rock like that." As the group thought over what Petrie had seen, Ozzie, Strut, Sierra, and Rinkus took shelter in a cave from a rainstorm. Suddenly, the two flyers and two eggstealers heard footsteps coming toward them. To be more exact, they heard both footsteps and wingbeats. After what seemed like an unimaginable amount of time, a pair of voices began talking quickly to each other and suddenly Rinkus decided to open his eyes and noticed a bellydragger and a sharpbeak whispering to each other. The sharpbeak spoke a little louder and said "so basically they decided to strut right onto our territory", "how do you know my name?" Strut piped up before Ozzie was able to silence him. "Newsflash", said the bellydragger, who was apparently a female, "they talk." "Apparently", added the sharpbeak, "they're trying to get through the cave so they can take over the Land of Mists, you see?" "No Icky", replied the bellydragger, "I don't see! How many times have I had to tell you!" Icky rolled his eyes and answered "I was asking if you understood. It's an expression." "We don't even know what you're talking about!" interrupted Sierra, "we were just trying to get shelter from the skywater!" Back in the Great Valley, Pterano had just woken up to notice that he was alone without Petrie, Guido, and Sky. He remembered what Petrie had seen the night before and figured that he must have went off to tell his friends about it. Back on the ground, Petrie had indeed told everyone about the flying rock and Petrie had spotted Doc and told him about the flying rock as well. Doc just said in an offhand manner "I already know. Your uncle told everyone." "We should go see what's going on", said Littlefoot before following Doc. The others then followed Littlefoot, except for Petrie, Sky, and Guido who hesitated briefly. Once Petrie had joined the main group, he was immediately singled out by Pterano who said "what don't you tell everyone what you saw last night", "I saw a flying rock." Petrie replied. "There's nothing unusual about a flying rock" Topps butted in, "we've all seen them." Petrie's mind immediately darted to the time when Littlefoot had faced this exact same situation and after a moment insisted "this one was different. I flew really low and shone like the bright circle but blue and it made a crackling sound like fire in the trees." Petrie then began looking around frantically and occasionally looking down at the background. He wasn't one for public speaking, although he had gotten braver as he'd gotten older. Suddenly, Petrie recognized his mother, who had been on a long journey trying to find out about strange things that had been occurring beyond the Great Valley, step out from the crowd. She pointed out "there's definitely something strange going on." "I have to concur with Pterra on this issue" spoke out Mr Thicknose. Petrie turned around in a whole circle, taking in everything. Cera, Littlefoot, Ducky, and Spike. Chomper, Ruby, Guido, Ali, Tippy, Sky, Trike, and Bracken. Meeko, Topps, Tria, and Tricia. Pterano, his mother, Ducky and Spike's mother, Grandma and Grandpa Longneck, Bron, Shorty (who ironically was even taller than Littlefoot), and others.


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note:

I just watched Journey Of The Brave on Netflix and thought it was a definite improvement over the disappointing Wisdom Of Friends. I also watched an LBT marathon on Sprout. Both these things gave me a chance to write this with LBT in the background. I hope you like it. Keep the reviews coming.

Petrie had decided to spend some time by the water, where Ducky would be giving Tricia her swimming lesson. His friends were also there watching Tricia master what no threehorn had. While Ducky instructed Tricia, Petrie, Cera, Littlefoot, and Spike watched. Meanwhile, Tippy, Ali, Bracken, Sky, and Trike were touring more of the valley with Chomper. Guido suddenly fluttered next to Petrie and said "I'm kind of nervous about this whole Night Hunter ordeal. Do you think there's any connection between that and the flying rock?" Petrie suddenly noticed Doc and Dara on the other side of the bank talking to a microraptor that he didn't recognize in a tree. He flew over to the branch where the new microraptor was to investigate. The stranger was coloured mostly magenta but the feathers sticking out from the head and marking the end of the tail were dark purple, but the most noticeable part were eyes covered by eyelashes even longer than Littlefoot's. "I see you've met Aurora" Doc interrupted, pulling Petrie from his thoughts. "she was found in the Land of Mists." Petrie introduced himself and told the microraptor about his friends before saying, "you should meet them." While Petrie was introducing Aurora to his friends, including Tippy, Ali, Bracken, Trike, and Sky, Guido began to talk with Aurora. They introduced each other and Aurora told the story of how she had escaped from the Land of Mists while being pursued by a bellydragger and a sharpbeak. She also failed to defend a nest of her unborn siblings from a pair of egg stealers. But she saved the most disturbing detail for last: while flying she was able to spot a blood splatter on the ground. Aurora's story made Petrie remember that when he and his friends had first met Ali and her herd they had to travel to the Land of Mists in order to find the night flower. They had also been pursued by a bellydragger and a sharpbeak and Petrie couldn't help but wonder if Aurora was describing the same ones. When Cera put what Petrie had just been thinking into words, Aurora clutched at her heart and with wide eyes and explained "this could be just a coincidence but something tells me it isn't. While I was flying I could hear them bickering among themselves. That sounds like them." "You must have been through allot", said Spike, "we're glad you made it to the valley. The treestars are glad too." Spike gaining the gift of speech hadn't diminished his telepathic connection with green food. Dara turned to her lover and asked "do you think Aurora could tell us anything else or should we leave?" Doc gestured his head in the direction of the watering hole and said "it looks like she's quite comfortable with Guido and the others. Maybe she could tell them what she's seen and heard." Once Doc and Dara left, Aurora seemed to turn a bit braver, and after a long pause, she continued "When I was flying away from the bellydragger and the sharpbeak I stopped to rest in a tree hole. While I was resting I listened to their conversation. Apparently their names are Dill and Icky and they're only together cause Icky's too small to catch anything and Dill can't see that good. But that's not the half of it. After Dill and Icky bickered for a bit, some eggstealers, I know what they were because I was watching, came over with these two flyers, one tan and the other pink." While he vaguely remembered both the eggstealers and the bellydragger and sharpbeak pair, what stuck most in his mind and refused to let go had been the two flyers Aurora had described. They could be none other than Sierra and Rinkus, who had accompanied Pterano in the past but later turned against him. Chomper also recalled that his friends had told him about how they had rescued him from eggstealers while he was still in the egg. Chomper was the first to speak, saying "I of course don't remember this but I was told that when I was an egg I was pursued by eggstealers. When I hatched Littlefoot and the others took care of me until my parents found me." "I defended Chomper from the eggstealers when he was hatched", explained Petrie, "and we encountered a bellydragger and a sharpbeak while looking for the night flower. But it's those two flyers you mentioned that have managed to stick in my memory. My uncle always called them Sierra and Rinkus. They were working with him but they betrayed them." Littlefoot knew what it must have felt like for Petrie to have first met Pterano after such a long time because he had felt the same way when he had met his father for the first time; and speaking of his father, Littlefoot wondered if Bron knew anything about all that had been going on. When Littlefoot approached Bron and Shorty, they had their heads dunked in the water probing for water plants. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get their attention by talking to them, Littlefoot decided to splash them instead. Unfortunately, as still sometimes happened, he forgot how big he had grown, and also splashed Kosh, who simply shook himself off. Littlefoot felt sorry immediately and said so, but Bron simply shook his head and smiled. Encouraged by his father's response, Littlefoot immediately blurted out "Dad, Shorty, I need to know about my mother. Grandpa told me about how she was looking for the night hunter and I can't help but wonder if that ties into everything that's been going on. I also once saw a weird flying rock exactly like the one Petrie just saw." Bron explained "Mama and Papa Longneck were convinced that the night hunter was a myth, but that didn't stop Maia from looking for him." Shorty continued "she spent most of her life searching before meeting Bron and settling down. I heard somewhere that she later met the night hunter when she was least expecting." Littlefoot thanked Bron and Shorty for their information and went off to tell his friends what he had learned.


End file.
